Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A
Fruit Cake Mixture Splitting
If, whilst adding the eggs to the beaten butter/sugar mixture, the batter splits, the advice generally given is to add a spoon of flour. Should the mixture then be beaten hard or slowly mixed (Kenwood high or low speed)? What if adding the flour doesn’t do the trick – what then? I assume it would be inadvisable to keep adding flour at this stage as further mixing in the Kenwood would start bringing out the gluten leading to an unwanted texture to the finished cake. What causes the mixture to split anyway?
Would welcome advice 🙂
David
If, whilst adding the eggs to the beaten butter/sugar mixture, the batter splits, the advice generally given is to add a spoon of flour. Should the mixture then be beaten hard or slowly mixed (Kenwood high or low speed)? What if adding the flour doesn’t do the trick – what then? I assume it would be inadvisable to keep adding flour at this stage as further mixing in the Kenwood would start bringing out the gluten leading to an unwanted texture to the finished cake. What causes the mixture to split anyway?
Would welcome advice 🙂
David
Hello headrabbit
Sugar and butter mix usually splits if the egg has been added too quickly and too much at a time. To ensure a smooth emulsion first beat the sugar/butter until light and fluffy for approx 5 -7 minutes. Eggs should be added at room temperature and lightly beaten. Add the eggs little at at time so they make a smooth emulsion with the sugar/butter. Adding liquid to oil (butter) as you know do not mix, and eggs are liquid. By adding them in a little at a time and beating really well allows smooth emulsification. If the mix does split, adding a tablespoon of flour and mixing slowly on low speed will bring the mix back to a smooth emulsion. You can do this about three times but no more, as the gluten in the flour will start to release and you’ll start to bake bread instead of cake! Add your main flour into the mix in three stages, each time incorporate well but gently. The batter will have come together with no sign of splitting. A split batter does not mean your mix has spoiled, the worse thing that can happen is the cake won’t rise quite as much as if it hadn’t split. You can read more here http://www.cakeflix.com/blog/baking-the-perfect-cake-why-things-go-wrong. I hope my answer helps.
Happy baking. x
Hello madeitwithlove,
Many thanks for that. I added the eggs one at a time but as they were large ones maybe “too much too soon”. Perhaps I will mix them all together next time so that I can add a small amount each time instead of a whole large egg.
Dx
